Takashi Miike may be noticeably absent from this year's Philadelphia Film Festival, but Danger After Dark's other favorite son, Ryuhei Kitamura, is thankfully present and accounted for. Azumi is one of his latest projects and marks his ascension to the rank of major studio director. Those fretting about a watered-down blockbuster needn't worry though, as Azumi maintains much of Kitamura's patented knack for swordplay cinematography and his zeal for blood-spattered carnage. To Kitamura, it seems that more money simply means more extras for his heroes to dispatch. While not as comically carnal as Versus or as intricately composed as Aragami, this lavish samurai-inspired epic is nevertheless loaded with fantastic sword-swinging action that fans of the genre will likely enjoy.

Azumi opens with some expository sequences that paint a battle-ravaged land torn apart by war-mongering overlords. To halt the spread of this destruction, samurai warrior Gessai is charged with the task of assembling a band of warriors who will be used to assassinate these powerful warlords. Consisting mainly of orphans and castaways, his group hones their skills in the wild for many years before their death-dealing mission is revealed to them. But in order to become full-fledged assassins, Master Gessai commands them to slay their closest companion in what turns out to be a surprisingly pathos-laden scene. One of the five surviving combatants is Azumi (played by the pixie-like Aya Ueto, who may be the cutest swordswoman since The Princess Blade's Yumiko Shaku), long recognized as being the most agile member of the team.

With the searing memory of their compatriots' deaths still fresh in their minds, Azumi and company set out from their mountain home on a quest to assassinate three of the regions' top-ranking officials. Though initially exuberant over the chance to showcase their skills, the team quickly comes to learn the gravity of their mission when they are forbidden to assist an innocent village being ransacked by murderous bandits. Gessai's troupe presses on, and although their first assassination goes off without a hitch, they meet with stiff resistance when dealing with the their next quarry, the unscrupulous Nagamasa Asano. Their efforts result only in the death of his body double and lead to them being pursued by ninjas, hunters and, eventually, the inhumanly beautiful white-clad swordsman Bijomaru Mogami.

What evolves through the rest of the picture is a standard samurai revenge tale rife with chaotic action setpieces and a host of side plots. A plethora of interesting characters decorate Kitamura's period piece and showcase his aptitude for injecting humor into grim battle scenes. This talent is deftly depicted by a scene in which a warrior continually pauses during his attack to comment on Azumi's cute appearance. The film's climax is undoubtedly its strongest point and sees Azumi, clad in a striking azure cloak, exacting revenge on at least a hundred hapless foes in an elaborate town-center melee. Her showdown with the pompous rose-sniffing Bijomaru is highly entertaining and features a mesmerizing 360° camera rotation that encircles the evenly-matched combatants. A number of gasp-inducing finishers, including a mid-air decapitation with a flaming sword, punctuate the expertly-shot clashes.

Though generally an entertaining film, Azumi offers little to distinguish itself from the horde of similar swordplay films that are already out there. This is puzzling considering Kitamura's penchant for outlandish spectacle, and even more so in light of his expanded budget. There is very little in the way of notable bloodspray or gore effects, and most of the fighters are dispatched without any blood at all. Azumi is also painfully slow-moving at times, as a number of dialogue-heavy scenes strip away the momentum generated by the all-too-infrequent skirmishes. Compounding the lack of flair is a rudimentary level of character development, though this is probably a stylistic decision. Veteran actor Yoshio Harada (who plays Torakichi in Nine Souls, also playing at this festival) is severely underused in his role as the elderly mentor, though he does participate in some cool-looking fights. And while Aya Ueda is wretchedly adorable and fun to watch as Azumi, the singer brings very little charisma to what should be a much more likeable lead character.

Like the majority of the films I've seen at this festival, Azumi winds up being a solid viewing experience whose only crime is failing to be an earth-shattering cinematic event. With a cutie-pie lead, vivid camerawork and large-scale fight sequences, Azumi is an enjoyable take on familiar material, though its lethargic pace and restrained use of the red stuff may turn off Kitamura fans hoping for another ballsy extravaganza. Long-time enthusiasts of the swordplay variant genre will likely find Azumi to be rather stale and pedestrian, while those cutting their teeth on the likes of Kill Bill will probably find a lot more to enjoy here. In my case, I would have liked Azumi a lot more had I watched it a year ago, before I really started to delve into the deep history of the genre. As it stands, the film still has enough going for it to warrant a recommendation. Just take my words into consideration before getting your hopes up too high.

Thumbs Up, but just barely. Lead by a super-cute assassin and sporting just enough of Kitamura's trademarked combat lunacy, Azumi is a sturdy swordplay action film whose thrills are offset by its lackluster treatment of familiar genre conventions.